Read at the launch of a book on the Ukraine Crisis by Professor Mohammad Ali Ehsan, Karachi, December 13, 2022.
Russians can come across as having quite a serious and stern front when initially meeting people they don’t know, but once they open up, they allow friends deeply into their life. They are also known to display special generosity and hospitality to their guests. However, they are merciless to their rivals and enemies, because humiliation is something they never forget. In the eyes of my younger brother, they can be called Europe’s Pashtoons; passionate, emotional, and vindictive in the sense that they would never forget insults nor forget favors/support from a friend.
Strong social traditions and family values continue to define Russian society, as a whole, as brothers/sisters, parents, and grand-parents remain closely knit as family the way families in Pashtoon, Afghan and Baloch cultures live. The situation in Punjab and Sindh is no different either.
It comes as no surprise considering they hooked up with Iran and used the Iranian conduit to supply the Afghan Taliban with weapons (in 2015 onwards) they needed to continue their struggle against the Kabul governments shielded by the US and NATO.
The Moscow Format involving the US, Russia, China, Central Asian Republics, and Pakistan was also a response to the US-led peace negotiations. It appeared to be an attempt to square off the humiliation that the Soviet Union had suffered at the hands of the United States and its allies.
Putinism:
However, demonized by the western leaders and media, there are certain elements of personal intellect and vision that have turned Putin into one of the most popular leaders of present-day Russia. That too stems from the Russian psyche and history.
Mohammad Ali Ehsan’s book also provides an insight into what is meanwhile known as Putinism; what is that philosophy: it comprises of three elements
- Autocracy (strong man with strong government)
- Territory, the fatherland
- Church – acceptance of religion
Putin combined all three to be able to stay in power for nearly 22 years with an iron hand. Behind that iron hand nevertheless is what he may have learned from his predecessor Boris Yeltsin; take care of Russia.
In the context of extremely difficult economic and socio-political circumstances – large-scale despair in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, Putin has revived the Russian spirit, resurrected national pride, and turned around the economic fortunes of a nation that experienced acute shortages of daily life necessities and social chaos after 1991.
Russians are living a happy life because they are enjoying cheap electricity, cheap petrol/gasoline, and cheap natural gas. No inflation, and no economic hardships and we are ready to welcome any foreigner who is not able to afford energy in his or her native country because we have it in abundance. Whatever the west is telling you we don’t care because we care for our basic necessities and Mr. Putin is taking care of them effectively.
Putin’s February (2022) Speech when he ordered the launch of a Special Military Operation (against Ukraine) aimed at purging “anti-Russian elements” on Ukrainian soil. (Excerpt from book)
“We should know our history as it was, take lessons from it, and always remember those who created the Russian state and defended its values, who made it a great and powerful state. We will preserve this memory, and this connection through time… and all the best from our history we will hand over to our descendants. I can assure you that in my actions I will only be led by the interests of the state…. I consider it my duty to unite the people of Russia, to collect its people around clear aims and tasks and remember each day and every minute that we have one motherland, one people and that together we have a future.”
Nationalism and historical linkages are oozing out of every single word of that speech.
Putin resurrected the economy, although lot of material on how some Russian oligarchs have made money by monopolizing power and resources of wealth, but that wealth has also reached the common Russians. The Football World Cup in 2018, free communication, technological advances despite western sanctions since the Crimean crisis in 2014 are some of the hallmarks that Putin can be credited for.
Book: Quite amazing work, critical literature on a subject that most people across the world tend to avoid. Nobody wants to talk of the western predatory geo-politics.
It is alright for them to support Israel with billions of dollars annually, legitimate when they all traded with South Africa until 1992 – despite the worst form of apartheid – discrimination of the locals.
